Motivational plan

The decisions we will have to make everyday are countless and we are trying to reserve a benefit and not a threat. We need to wonder why we are leaving our bed to go in the office, why we are writing this essay instead of having a party or what made us quit our last job even though the wage was more than satisfied. The workplace demands cooperation and team working but it is quite difficult to satisfy the different needs of every participant. Motivational plan is the key answer and we will have to find a way to fit traditional incentives like money and non traditional as recognition at the same time.

Another key aspect is how to make the managers not to miss the plan and to provide tools to help them success. History provided several motivational theories based on working theories which tried to explain the affect of the external and internal factors. The Goal-Setting theory expressed by Robbins (2001, p. 249) is maybe the most appreciated by the researchers. The theory says, “Intentions expressed as goals, can be a major source of work motivation” (p. 250). The employees determine and evaluate what they have to do and leave enough space to set their goals and that is the best incentive of the theory.

Everyone has to involve by making decisions and that is why everyone feels appreciated and valuable. Each leader develops a motivational plan and they will have to communicate in and out of the organization. The leader has to share his vision and inform each employee what is expected to contribute. Employees need to know the mission of their organization in order to set their own goals. Evaluation and sharing ideas with employees is an important asset. Nobody is perfect and maybe some ideas or solutions will occur by discussing with the staff.

The most diverse and creative ideas were borne through team working. Responsibility is not to be hold up to the penthouse but it is necessary to be shared among the employees. If someone does not face and handle problems, is not becoming able to create solutions upon a crisis and his attribution will remain limited? Mistakes are a necessity to improve our skills and everyone learns through mistakes. Training and support of the employees creates feelings like self-esteem to their personal abilities and why not makes them confident and secure in the organization for which are doing their best.

It is important to congratulate someone when is doing something right or positively comment as soon as possible. Let employees know if you are proud of them. Small wins may be a reason to celebrate and a beginning of others to join and work harder to success as their colleagues did and rewarded. Customization of the general motivational upon to each individual aspects and maybe the way to achieve it is through the method of the question marks questionnaires or through some interactive meetings. The removal of stress leads to a friendly and pleasant work environment.

Everyone needs to feel joy while going back to work and the best way to achieve it, is by tracking the specific needs of everyone individually. Evaluation reports may apply every month in such a way to provide useful data for improvement and not to focus on the negative issues. Maybe sort of negatives reference will establish the base for improvement while weight the positives. Animosities are required and may lead to a benefit instead of harmony which mostly leads to loss. We are not perfect and the situations we are dealing with are not. Each motivation plan needs an update from time to time as the environment transforms and develops.

The external factors such as peer pressure should stay limited because they could become dangerous and a reason to fail. Every manager requires results and therefore has to be next to the employees and keep an eye out for warning signs of change in the external environment of the organization. Empowerment Empowerment is to share, to give and receive power from people. Enriching our work and gain autonomy in a way that improves productivity. Many managers confused the term and meaning of empowerment and the only thing were doing to “empower” the employees were by giving advices on how to follow their point of view.

Many people will feel uncomfortable if they treat management with a traditional view. The process of empowerment will challenge the employees to gain some authority on their jobs in order to increase productivity. And the manager has to balance the freedom and choice which is going to provide. A strong and capable manager will not feel insecure by passing authority. A managerial task is to ensure the right conditions for his people to achieve their targets. As a coach has to show the way by building relations with his associates. One-to-one procedures, to listen, think and feel the opportunities.

Empowerment believes in teamwork and promotes the importance of the self managed or autonomous teams in accordance with the general business plan. The participants need to take under consideration the risk taking and the importance of the trust among the members if they wish to achieve their goals. The empowerment requires no hurry since it requires a deeper change of our inner culture. The commitment is great and requires a lot of time to adjust. But the rewards are more than important. The people will feel appreciated and they are going to improve their results.

Managers they will receive as a reward the best performance from each employee. After don’t expect to develop if your people remain static. Notes on Critical Theory Personnel administration transformed into human resource management and achieved a great amount of criticism since at first the general feeling was that was treating humans as the other common resources of an organization. The journal “Organization” on a special issue developed through a multi tasked approach the human and inhuman face of human resource management (Steyaert and Janssens, 1999)

Other critics noticed that even though in theory the philosophy of the human resource management has changed the working environment, in fact the personnel department just changed the sign up on their door and that was all. Wilkinson in his literature which published in 1998 refers to empowerment as a human resource management practice which is mostly a fake pseudo-empowerment attitude and not something innovative. The arguments may seem reasonable by the researchers, but they do not really suggest something new to replace human resource management.

According to my beliefs it is not hard to find weaknesses but to develop them into advantages Brief Notes on Team Based Incentive Systems Some of the major arguments of motivation experts regarding the team incentive systems. Organizations have to offer rewards on team working otherwise the team members will not consider that their job was valued enough by the organization. Surveys findings show that only 20 to 35% of organizations with teams use a form of intensive system (HR Focus, 1993, Management Services, 1996, Pasternak, 1994).

The major categories of intensive systems include the: profitsharing system, the goal based systems, team skill incentive systems and the discretionary bonus system. In team profitsharing systems, the incentives are next to organization’s outcomes. Such as organizational profit and organizational productivity. The teams mainly rewarded when the profits for the organization are satisfactory (McNerney, 1994). In most of the cases the reward is cash and splits equally to all members. The team goal-based systems are the most suitable for full time teams.

The targets are pre-defined and the activities of the team should be specified in advance (Gross, 1995). Team skill intensive systems focus on the acquisition of specific valued skills and not by the outcome. Skill incentive system is mostly useful in permanent teams since requires a great amount of time and effort (Gross, 1995). The discretionary team bonus systems require high levels of cooperation and the case of conflict is quite common. The evaluation focuses on the outcome but without a predefined target level of performance and it is up to the organization to reward or not a specific team.

The business journal of San Diego published an article on Oct. 6, 1997 titled “team-based Incentive System”. Bob Harring the article author summarized different ideas which supported the team based theory and proposed his own team based reward system. Harring supported that an individual reward system creates competition instead of cooperation. I would say that in most of the case studies I have worked with the model “altogether as a team to achieve our goal” worked but there are people who deliver excellent results by working individually.

So even though the incentive systems tend to be team based and to follow a specific policy of sharing I don’t agree that Harrington’s beliefs are the only path and any kind of individual incentive system would lead to bad influence and eventually to a failure. Conclusion Kern and Schumann (1984, p. 19) have mentioned the “new production concepts” while the Taylorism was becoming powerless. But after all, the change to a more humanistic approach it was not global and absolute.

The food industry excluded by Kern and Schuman and in other industries the Taylorism remains alive. The post-Taylorism period is near but quite slower than everyone expected. Forms like the “McDonadization” and the call centers provide a safe shelter for the Taylor’s principles. Human resource management introduced Democratic beliefs and participation instead of a formal non flexible bureaucratic system. If your work is unattractive you are not willing to create or to increase productivity and that is something which needs to be considered by the decision makers.

The managers are necessary to keep employees involved and motivated. It is not a right strategy to sit and watching while you are expecting from the employees to achieve performance without guidance and reward. Preparation of a motivation plan is vital and the manager has to stay committed on it. Evaluation leads to feedback and the feedback to incentives as a part of a motivational plan. As Maslow refers to self-achievement as a way of reaching people their goals in their work and life (Maslow, 1943, 1954).

It is obvious as a necessity that a manager’s main targets are the praise and recognition of the staff, the work enrichment, and the right well studied incentives. After all, persuade the staff and do not try to coerce it. When we are strict, formal and committed to bureaucracy it is reasonable to lead our staff to absenteeism instead of creative initiative. Tack considered leadership synonymous to motivation (Tack, 1979). Therefore, if the leaders are capable to create the right motivational environment, excellence can and must be achieved.